Speed of Light in the Quran?

Muslims are hard at work trying to find
miracles in the Qur'an and each day they "find" something new. They
gloat about it and pump themselves, spread the glad tiding across
the Internet, publish it in their newspapers, and challenge others
to disprove that miracle, until someone shows their error and
deflates them like a punctured balloon. This does not stop them.
Since they are eager to find miracles, and since there is no end to
human gullibility, especially when you want to believe, they find a
new miracle miracle every day.

The Claim

Today I received a request to clarify the claim
that the Qur'an has disclosed the speed of light more than a
thousand years before it was calculated by scientists.

In an
article published in Islamicity.com Dr. Mansour Hassab-Elnaby
claims the
verse 32.5reveals that light in one day
travels a distance equal to 12,000 lunar orbits, and upon
calculating that distance we find the exact speed of light.

Here is
that verse translated by Shakir:“He
regulates the affair from the heaven to the earth; then shall it
ascend to Him in a day the measure of which is a thousand years of
what you count..”

According to Dr. Hassab-Elnaby, "affairs"
mentioned in this verse is light. So this verse reveals that light
can travel in one day the distance that will take the Moon, 1000
years to span.

It takes a Muslim's imagination to think this
verse has anything to do with the speed of light. There is no
mention of moon, light or even distance in this verse. However, let
us agree with this assumed interpretation for now and see whether
Dr. Hassab-Elnaby has his math right.

***

1- Wrong Calculation

The average center-to-center distance from the
Earth to
the Moon is 384,403 km. The orbit of the Moon is nearly
circulart. (That is why we see the Moon always with the same size)

This means that for the Moon to go a full
circle around the Earth it must travel a distance of 2,415,273
km

(Circumference of the lunar orbit = 2r π = 2 x
384,403 x 3.14159)

To orbit the earth 12,000 times the Moon must
travel 28,983,278,898 km (2.415,273 x 12,000). This is
how much the moon travels in 1000 lunar years.

These two numbers are not the same. They
are not even close. There is a difference of 3,081,210,527 km
(28,983,278,898 - 25,902,068,371) between the distance traveled
by the Moon in 1000 lunar years and the distance traveled by light
in one day.

This difference is over twenty times the
distance between the Earth and the Sun. So clearly Dr. Hassab-Elnaby
got it wrong. The two numbers do not match.

That is not all. There is a difference between
lunar month (phases) and lunar orbit. The Moon makes
a complete orbit around the Earth every 27.3 days, (sidereal
month)while the periodic variations in the geometry
of the Earth–Moon–Sun system are responsible for the lunar phases
that repeat every 29.5 days (synodic month).
There is a difference of 2.2 days between the lunar month and the
lunar orbit. (Wikipedia)

In one lunar years the Moon revolves around the
Earth 12.967 times (29.5 x 12 / 27.3) and not 12 times as
this Muslim has erroneously calculated. So the distance that the
moon travels in 1000 lunar years is actually 32, 045,078,461 km
(

12,967 x 2,4715,273).

The difference between this distance and the
distance traveled by light in one day is 6,143,010,090 km
(32, 045,078,461 - 25,902,068,371). It would take light, another 5
hours 41 minutes to travel this extra distance.

Alternatively we can say that the Moon revolves
around the Earth 10,724 times to cover the distance that the
light travels in 24 hours. (Distance traveled by light in one day
25,902,068,371 km / The orbit of the Moon 2,415,273 km).

It takes only 827 lunar years for the Moon to
go this distance and not 1000 lunar years. (10,724 revolutions of
the Moon around the Earth x 27.3 days that takes for each
revolution / 354 days that exist in each lunar year).

No matter how you look at it Dr.
Hassab-Elnaby's calculations are wrong. The distance traveled by the
Moon in 1000 years and the distance traveled by light in one day are
NOT the same. He is off by nearly 25%.

***

2 - Wrong Interpretation

This is not his only error. The verse talks
about the “affairs of God” being sent to Earth and then
ascending to Him in one day, the length of which is 1000 years.
How on Earth this educated slave of Allah has determined that
"affairs" means light? The word used in Arabic is Amr. It
means commandment, order, cause, and affair. This is an allusion to
God’s religion and not light. Amrullah means the Cause of
God. A more accurate translation of this verse is, God sends his
Cause to Earth, which will return to Him, i.e. it will be revoked
in one day, the length of which is equal to 1000 years.

This is how
Sheikh Ahmad Ahsai (1753 -1826), founder of Shiite Sheikhieh
school and his disciple
Seyyed Kazim-i-Rashti (1792- 1843) interpreted this verse. They
claimed Islam does no longer meet the needs of the time and since it
does not allow reform, it must be abrogated. However, since no one
can abrogate the word of God but God himself, this task rests on the
shoulders of the awaited Mahdi, the Promised One of the Shiites.
Ahsai and Rashti said the end of Islam and the appearance of Mahdi
has already been foretold in the Hadith and the Qur'an, and verse
32:5 gives the exact date.

According to these eminent scholars,
Amrullah, the cause of God, was completed when Hassan Askari,
the last Shiite Imam died. He was the last intermediary between God
and Mankind. Hassan Askari died in the lunar year 260 Hijra. Ahsai
believed that since, according to the verse 32:5, one thousand years
after the communication between God and mankind is interrupted the
cause of God (Islam) would be revoked
يَعْرُجُ إِلَيْهِ ,
Mahdi should manifest himself in the year 1260 Hijra (1844 EC)

Seyyed Kazem Rashti died one year before the
expected year. He, was so sure that Mahdi would manifest himself in
the coming year that he did not appoint any successor. He dissolved
the Sheikhieh school ordering his disciples to scatter around Persia
to find him. It was in this atmosphere of expectation that the 26
year old Seyyed Ali Mohammad Bab claimed to be the Promised One.
Thanks to his sincerity and Christ like innocence he attracted most
of the students of Seyyed Kazem and in a short time the Babi
movement became so popular that took the country by storm. The
amazing success of the Babis in converting the Iranians was seen as
a threat to the clergy who instigated the king to execute Bab. They
started a brutal campaign of persecution of Babis and subsequently
Bahais that has lasted till this day.

I do not want to be an apologist for Bab. I do
not believe in Islam and do not think the Qur'an contains any
prophecy. Anyone can interpret the Qur'an in anyway he pleases. I
do not believe Bab was a messenger of God. According to this
author, that young man suffered from temporal lobe epilepsy, a
mental condition that is characterized in his prolific, verbose, and
incoherent writings. He certainly believed in his cause and refused
to recant to save his life. Nonetheless, in all fairness, one can
see that Ahsai and Rashti have given a much more logical
interpretation to this verse than Dr. Hassab-Elnaby with his inane
claim that the verse reveals the speed of light.

***

3 - Wrong Translation

Which part of this verse talks about light or
its speed? Muhammad in this verse is saying that a day of Allah is
1000 years long. This is his way of saying Allah is big, everything
about him is big, and even his days are big. Muhammad repeated the
same thing in the verse
22.47 “Verily
a day in the sight of thy Lord is like a thousand years of your
reckoning.” There is no mention of affairs going up and
down, light or speed of light in this verse.

The length of the day is determined by how fast
a planet revolves around its axis and it has nothing to do with the
size of its inhabitants. All we can understand from this verse is
that the creator of the world lives in a very slow revolving planet.

Just to show the absurdity and confusion
in the Qur'an let us see the verse
70:4:

“The angels and
the spirit ascend unto him in a Day the measure whereof is (as)
fifty thousand years.”

This verse has a similar content of the verse
32:5, but here it says that the length of the day of God is 50,000
years. This is a clear contradiction. Is a day of God 1000 years or
is it 50,000 years?

Does it mean that it takes 50,000 years
for angels and spirits to reach God? That is awfully slow. Then how
could Angel Gabriel take Muhammad to heaven and back in one night?
The Qur'an is replete with contradictions and absurdities. Muhammad
had found a gullible audience who gobbled everything he told them
uncritically. He never thought one day his words will be scrutinized
and he lies will be exposed.

***

4 - Wrong Parameters

There is still more problem with this claim.
The speed of light is constant while the rotation of the Earth,
thanks to losing its kinetic energy, is slowing down. Therefore, the
days of the Earth are becoming longer. Also the Moon is getting
away from the Earth and its orbit is widening. To orbit the Earth,
the Moon has to travel a little more each time. How can one measure
something that is constant with things that are variable? The very
notion of measuring the speed of light with the orbit of the Moon or
the length of the day is a fallacy.

***

5 - Stolen Miracle

The funny thing is that even this comparison
that the day of God is equal to 1000 years is plagiarized from the
Bible and is not Muhammad's original idea.

For a thousand years in your sight are
like a day that has just gone by, or like a watch in the night.
Psalm 90:4

But do not forget this one thing, dear
friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a
thousand years are like a day.2
Peter 3:8

When the Psalmist says a thousand years for God
is like a watch in the night, he means God is timeless. In those
days people used sundials that only worked in sunshine. This is a
beautiful way to say time does not exist for God. This thousand
years should be taken allegorically and not literally.

Peter understood that. He said with Lord not
only a thousand years is like one day, also one day is like a
thousand years. What that humble fisherman was saying is that Time
is irrelevant for God. Compare that with the pathetic attempt of
Muslim doctors and scholars who take this plagiarized allegory
literally and try to find scientific equations in it.

Assuming there is a miracle in this allegory
shouldn't the credit go to the Bible? Isn't it interesting that
neither the Jews nor the Christians have made the claim that these
verses reveal scientific information, but Muslims make that claim
even though Muhammad has copied the idea form the Bible? What this
tells us about the state of the mind of Muslims? Doesn't this show
they are insecure and desperate to validate their illogical faith by
clinging to any straw?

***

6 - Does the Qur'an distinguish synodic and
sidereal months?

Dr. Mansour Hassab-Elnaby claims, "Quranic
verse (10:5) discriminates between the synodic period for knowing
the number of years and the real sidereal period for reckoning in
scientific calculations." This is the verse in question:

It is He Who
made the sun to be a shining glory and the moon to be a light
[wrong. Moon is not a source of light],
and measured out stages for her; that ye might know the number
of years and the count. 10:5

This verse in no ways discriminates between
synodic and sidereal months. Dr. Hassab-Elnaby is engaging in
wishful thinking.

***

7 - The Islamic Divine Comedy

In their quest to find miracles in the Qur'an,
Muslims unwittingly make, not only Islam, but the entire Divine
system look like a joke. Our good doctor says, "The verse begins
with a reference to a certain "cosmic affair" which GOD creates and
commands. This affair travels, permanently through the whole
universe between the heavens and the Earth, so speedily that it
crosses in ONE DAY a maximum distance in space equivalent to that
which the moon passes during ONE THOUSAND LUNAR YEAR (i.e. during
12000 Sidereal months)."

"Affairs traveling permanently through the
whole universe at speed of light?" Methinks the Doctor is talking
about UFOs. Now, when it comes to the Universe, the speed of light
is not really that fast. It is a very slow way for God to run his
affairs. These "cosmic affairs" traveling at the speed of light take
one full day to reach the Earth. If you are in peril, forget about
asking Allah for help. By the time he send you his succor, a day is
passed and that is often too late.

Consider yourself lucky because Allah is only
one light day away from the Earth (I thought Muhammad said he is
closer to us than our jugular vein). He lives just around the corner
of our solar system. Think of other poor creatures that live
hundreds or thousands light years away or those who live in galaxies
that are millions or billions light years away from God. How can
God run his affairs in those galaxies when the communication is so
slow? For all intent and purposes, as far as those far away galaxies
are concerned God does not exist. In his zeal to ascribe miracles
to the prosaic book of Muhammad, Dr. Hassab-Elnaby throws out of the
window the concept of omnipresence of God altogether. The maker of
the Universe, according to this Muhammadan, depends on the speed of
light to manage his affairs.

It is pathetic that in this day of science and enlightenment, a
billion otherwise normal people, many of whom doctors and educated,
should still follow an ignoramus of the seventh century and waste
their time trying to find meaning and even miracles in his asinine
balderdash. This should tell you everything you need to know about
Muslim intelligentsia. The fact that Islamicity.com, arguably the
most prestigious Islamic site has published this nonsense proves the
intellectual bankruptcy of the ummah.

Islam is a joke. It is an irony that so many smart people have
reduced themselves into jokers and laughing stocks for mankind. The
more Muslims try to make Islam look logical and scientific the more
ridiculous THEY look.